


Locked Up

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Arachnophobia, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-12
Updated: 2012-06-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 08:51:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1298875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy locks up because of fear</p>
            </blockquote>





	Locked Up

The pair of young heroes had been given a simple part of the plan to carry out. They were going to sneak in, through an old drainage pipe and into the poorly kept factory so they'd be hidden inside once the 'front-door' part of the team arrived to make a distraction. Between the two of them, they'd find the connections they needed to make between the arms dealer and Lex Luthor while their team mates kept people busy.

The problem, Nightwing supposed, with such sneak-in and sneak-out plans had to do with how much they depended on secrecy and stealth. Something was bound to go wrong, just like now, as Speedy, who was in the front, froze completely.

Nightwing was not Batman's former protege for nothing, as he immediately applied his full sense to the situation ahead of them. His first instinct of electronic detection in the drainage pipe died away when he, no matter how hard he tried to listen, could hear not a single hum of power, nor detect either motion or sensor-glints.

"Speedy?"

His hoarse whisper of his partner's name did nothing to produce a response, and that made Nightwing focus all his training on his friend. They'd known each other since before they had been Titans, since before Nightwing had chosen a new identity to call himself. Nightwing detected a harshness to the breathing, unregulated and sharp, too deep, too fast. The pipe was narrow and not really conducive to slipping around Speedy unless the other flattened, but right now, with the lock-down in Speedy's visible muscles, that wasn't in the realm of possibility.

"Speedy!" This was a firmer call, the voice of the Leader, combined with Nightwing wrapping a hand around the part of the calf just above Speedy's boot. The absolute electricity and attempt to back and fill in the pipe from Speedy worried Nightwing, but he kept his calm. "Easy, Speedy. Talk to me."

"I...sorry...I just...." Despite the attempt at motion, despite the speech, Speedy's eyes stayed determinedly fixed ahead. 

"What is it?"

"Nothing...nothing at all. Sorry." Speedy forced himself forward, but Nightwing noted the peculiar way he moved past the spot where he had been looking, and paid close enough attention to see the ends of pedipalps disappearing in the small crack of a weld break as a scorpion backed its way into safety. Aside from the slightest tremor in Speedy's quick motion, the incident seemed over, but Nightwing locked it to the back of his head for later, for when the masks were off.

`~`~`~`~`

"It's stupid! I don't want to talk about it!"

Dick through up his hands in near defeat, until he saw Roy rubbing subconsciously at the lower forearm of his bow arm. He'd been trying, ever since they got back, to get Roy to talk about the reaction to the scorpion.

"You were stung, when you were younger, weren't you?" Dick pressed. "That funny little scar on the side of your arm?"

"Dick....let it go! I froze up, it was stupid, and I apologized!" Roy's red hair was being rivaled by the spots of anger in his cheeks.

Dick moved closer, one hand reaching out. "Roy...it's okay to be afraid. To react."

"Just...shut up, 'mano. It's over," Roy said in a plaintive voice.

"Did I ever tell you about the time the Joker got away because I was afraid to use a rope with a frayed end?" Dick asked softly. He looked up into Roy's eyes and saw he had scored at least an attempt to listen. "I was right where I could have gotten the drop on him, but I saw the end of the rope, and I froze." 

Roy accepted that reaching hand, let Dick pull him over to drop down on the couch together. "I wasn't very old," he admitted. "Sickest I'd ever been, outside of...well, _then_ ," Roy admitted. Dick hid the wince at the reference to Roy's withdrawal illness. "Raymond did everything he could for me, but in the end....he told me the Spirits had decided to fight for me." Roy rubbed at the scar, the result of an ulcerated scorpion sting from an Arizona Bark Scorpion. "It stuck with me...and I freeze up. Stupid....they're not even that toxic to a healthy adult."

"Hey, it's not so stupid. You were just a kid, and you'd just lost your dad. It's nothing to be ashamed of or to keep throwing aside like that," Dick told him, bringing their foreheads together to make his point. "Now I know, and I get it. I really do."

Roy looked into his eyes, and slowly breathed a little sigh of relief. Dick knew what that meant; Roy had been afraid of losing esteem in Dick's eyes. That fear, on top of being afraid of arachnids, which Dick was certain someone had teased Roy over, probably Green Arrow himself, had led to the temper.

"We're cool, and we'll watch over each other, Roy. Even for the fears we can't shake. Got it?"

"Got it, 'mano."


End file.
